Harvard Scholar Cornwell West Close to Decision on Whether to Leave for Princeton

AP ^ | April 2, 2002 | Theo Emery

[Pharmboy]

BOSTON (AP) - A prominent Harvard University black studies professor will soon decide whether to return to Princeton University over a feud with Harvard's administration, a colleague said Tuesday. Cornel West has not yet decided whether to make the move, said Harvard Law School professor Charles Ogletree, who has been representing West.

"He's a very close colleague and friend and a client, so I'm hoping - my personal and professional hope - is that Cornel West and Harvard find a mutual way to solve their differences," Ogletree said.

Several members of Harvard's department have been at odds with Harvard President Lawrence Summers, who took over the post last year.

Summers reportedly rebuked West for recording a rap CD and leading a political committee for the Rev. Al Sharpton's possible presidential campaign. He also reportedly accused West of allowing grade inflation in his introductory black studies course.

West, who has cancer and is currently on leave from Harvard, has said he was "dishonored," and threatened to leave for Princeton, where he taught religion and led the African-American studies department until 1994.

On Tuesday, Princeton's Program in African American Studies inadvertently released a statement congratulating West for deciding to return.

"We salute Prof. West on his wise decision to return to Princeton," the statement said. Princeton spokesman Robert Durkee said Tuesday that West had not acted upon the offer, and that the statement, issued in error, had been prepared in case West accepted. West did not return a call for comment.

This week, Harvard students circulated a petition urging West to remain a part of Harvard's prestigious group of black scholars, led by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

In January, K. Anthony Appiah accepted an offer from Princeton, becoming the first member of Harvard's prominent circle of black scholars to leave. He cited personal reasons, not differences with Summers.

[Pharmboy]

Hudson Valley Community College would be more like it for all the scholarly stuff this fraud produces.

You want African American intellectuals? Fine: let's talk to Thomas Sowell or Walter Williams. This guy's full of it.

[DallasMike]

Let's all chip in and send him to an orthodontist as a going-away present.

[joltinjoe]

Does anyone in the real world give a flying monkey c**p about what they do?

[genefromjersey]

Mr. West ? Please don't let the door hit you on the way out !<br< PS: Please don't go to Princeton: they do some serious stuff there.Rutgers, maybe. They have an Administrator you're going to LOVE !

[blam]

"Does anyone in the real world give a flying monkey c**p about what they do?"

Nope. But I do compliment Harvard on their method of getting rid of these loonies. ("We're sorry that they are gone and , honest, we really didn't mean to hurt their feelings.") Ahem!!

[Pharmboy]

[Ann Archy]

He is to intellectualism as Jackson Pollard is to art. You THINK there may be some talent there, but on closer scrutiny it;s just gibberish.

[montag813]

Perhaps he can teach Air Conditioning Repair at APEX Technical School

"Remember, I can't call YOU"

[montag813]

He is to intellectualism as Jackson Pollard is to art

Jackson Pollard should be executed for selling paintings to the Israelis.

[Malesherbes]

Harvard's loss is Princeton's gain. Or is it the other way around?

[Fzob]

Man, I'm going to lose sleep over this news. Who gives a rat rear end where that jackass goes.

[onedoug]

Ask him a simple question. See what happens.

[Pharmboy]

That two of America's top academic institutions should be fighting over this loser speaks volumes (although Harvard appears to be giving him the old heave-ho).

[WOSG]

*** Yawn ***

[WOSG]

Lol ... careful, you may be spreading cultural illiteracy ... or at least confusion. -> ...

[JAWs]

If you have to pay tuition for yourself or someone else, you'd better.

[cutlass]

Whats amazing is that the liberals at AP actually think this is news. Me, I couldn't care less where this racist hate filled negro teaches.

[keithtoo]

So long, Cornbread!!

[keithtoo]

Yeah, but the paintings contained information that only a drunk, self-obsessed, and overrated artist could decipher.

No real harm done.....but a lot of good paint wasted.

[ml/nj]

In my weekly Torah Study group I am considered by the others to be "right-wing." We have two Haahvads, and one Princeton who think themselves "Liberal." Only the Princeton guy favors the status quo.

ML/NJ

PS Princeton Guy says he has written to the University President and said he will never make another contribution if West is brought in.